Talk: Trashcan Carla

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what does "Sanctuary Hills once expanded" mean? This should be clarified, does this mean once settled?

No i dont think it means once its settled, i think it means once Sturges "the Sanctuary" side quest is completed. because its possible to settle Sanctuary before Sturges and his group arrives but the thing is, settling the place with random settlers wont count as "Sanctuary being founded" in fact Sanctuary being founded only happens after Sturges, Mama murphy and the rest arrive with Col. Garvy. after this happens the diamond city will periodically have a commercial break saying how Sanctuary has been founded it wont happen before when its only been settled, also the other benefit of being founded is of course Trashcan Carla showing up periodically every other day on her route from Drumlin Diner. Promethius20 (talk) 15:58, July 14, 2016 (UTC)

PS4... Brahmin problem!

Does anyone know how to fix this on the PS4: Trashcan Carla came for her regular visit at Sanctuary Hills. When she left, "Curly and Moe" (her brahmin) got stuck inside the Sole Survivor's pre-war house somehow. Now, (she, it, they) can't get out... Help!

Now that's a situation indeed. Once, her brahmin got stuck inside the yellow house across from the House of Tomorrow, and she didn't leave... until I fast traveled away for a while. Go to some far away region of the map and explore a bit, then come back after about an ingame day has passed. SHOULD be completely resolved by then. ☯ Miggy ^{(hawk talk)} 23:17, January 1, 2016 (UTC)

Hey thanks a lot, I'll try this right away! You're right, it just might do the trick.

UPDATE: Yep! That worked. Thanks again!

Was this really a bug or the sale display issue?

The page currently has:

When trading with her, a glitch occasionally occurs which results in the caps transaction not being accounted properly (making the Sole Survivor lose some caps). A workaround is to Quicksave prior to the transaction and accept each transaction individually, before proceeding to the next one. If this doesn't work, re-load your Quicksave and start again.

Have seen a lot of people around the web who posted similarly about sale prices from various merchants but it is only a display bug. They chose something for sale, then change their mind and retrieve it to their side before finalizing the sale. The displayed amount before returning the item to your side is what the merchant would have charged for it, not what you were gaining in selling it to her that now needs to be canceled out. When you return the item, it gives back the original price (which is correct since the sale never happened), not the displayed price. Is that maybe what is going on here? If no one verifies it I'd write it off to that and remove it from the article. FBG GregR (talk) 23:30, January 1, 2016 (UTC)

It is really a sales issue (a bug) in this case. Several times, the Sole Survivor did straight-up transaction with Trashcan Carla — no buy-back, no back-and-forth, just selling. At some point, I realize that the caps stop transferring properly. Ending the transaction and looking at the Pip-boy does not restore the lost caps (in other words, the behind-the-scene 'spreadsheet' records a permanent miscalculation). I suggest we leave the entry as is for the time being. Helios One (talk) 23:56, January 1, 2016 (UTC)

UPDATE: I started a new game. I deleted all my saves, including all settings. The same bug occurred as described above. I am marking this entry in the bugs section of the Trashcan Carla page as 'verified'. Helios One (talk) 05:24, January 5, 2016 (UTC)

Yep, mark it verified, watched a bunch of sales and saw it too on two different sessions with multiple merchants. First one I'm not sure when it started but it was continuous once I noticed it. Second session I hit probably 20 merchants without the bug showing. Don't think I sold anything to Carla in that stretch though. Then sold to her and the bug started up and continued with other merchants. Here is a picture of it with my general store trader after it started back up again. http://postimg.org/image/ctyijlm51/ It took so long to manifest I wonder if something is triggering it. Maybe only Carla, or traveling merchants, or something else. Will have to keep an eye out and see if we can nail down when it starts each session. It is definitely affecting other merchants too so if it's not reported on other appropriate pages we probably need to look at adding it, but would like to try to nail down first if something in particular makes it start showing up so we know where the best spot is for it. FBG GregR (talk) 05:51, January 5, 2016 (UTC)

Agreed. Until we know more about this bug, and since Trashcan Carla seems to be the trigger in all play throughs —being the first vendor we usually meet, I attributed the bug to her page. Let's wait and see if that is what affects other merchants. In the meantime, I created a bug entry with 'verification needed' on the Fallout 4 merchants page. Many thanks for your contribution. Helios One (talk) 21:47, January 6, 2016 (UTC)

New Routes?

I think her route changes once you put down the Bunker Hill caravan posts. She will start a new route that includes the post(s) and the counter at Bunker Hill in addition to Sanctuary/Dunlin.

I activated her initially by finding her rather than the Sanctuary quest, and I do not have caravan posts unlocked yet. But I have also seen her at Bunker Hill on one occasion. So it might just be in her regular rotation once she starts traveling. FBG GregR (talk) 05:54, January 5, 2016 (UTC)

Misleading Article

The description says any attempts to rob her are in vain, as she will never give in, but on my 10 CHA evil character I robbed her on the first try...

So shouldn't that be changed for being misleading?

Schedule and weekdays

Some questions about the schedule.

Firstly, days of the week. Even if that's the actual basis of the schedule, the game never tells you the day of the week, but if I use a calendar system to work it out, the listed values are not correct, eg Carla is in Sanctuary on a Wednesday. More to the point I see a totally different schedule where Carla arrives at Sanctuary every day. She just shuttles between Drumlin Diner and Sanctuary Hills (unless you add trading posts at other settlements).

I suspect the schedule is actually more dynamic than is shown, and may depend on which locations the PC has discovered? Anyway there must be some explanation of why the discrepancy between what I see in game and what the article states.

Also the specific times are variable and (in common with provisioner arrivals) appear to be skewed to when the PC is arriving, waking up, etc. (In other words, when the cell is instantiated.)

As a conservative fix I would suggest changing Sun / Mon / Tue etc to Day 1 / 2 / 3. It's unreasonable to expect players to calculate the day of the week in 2287, and it may not be accurate anyway.

(more)

My observations are that Carla:

1. Arrives at Drumlin Diner at midnight
2. Leaves Drumlin Diner at 8am
3. Arrives at Sanctuary around noon (11?)
4. Starts to leave Sanctuary around 8pm - gone by 9pm

This cycle happens roughly every 24 hours as far as I can tell in my game (unmodded never-modded vanilla Survival).

However the game seems to cheat these times to give you a chance to catch Carla "as she is leaving" if you wake up, or arrive, after her departure time.

(more)

After careful observation I think it's pretty simple:

1. She only moves between Sanctuary and Drumlin and only stops at those two places.
2. Under normal conditions the trip takes her about 3.5 hours.
3. You can walk with her on the route in both directions.
4. However if you leave her presence she is likely to teleport the rest of the way at the appropriate time.
5. She leaves whenever she is at 8am and 8pm to travel to the other place.
6. Or in the more general case she stays in place for 12 hours before moving
7. The game intervenes to delay her departure to allow the player to arrive and/or wake up. This is the main factor that disrupts what would otherwise be a very regular pattern
8. The first time she arrives in Sanctuary is determined by what time of day you meet her on the road or what time you complete the Sanctuary quest. That's going to be potentially different for each player and each playthrough. Different start times will create different schedules.
9. I see no evidence of her having Thursday or any other day "off" in Bunker Hill
10. It's possible there's an extra delay (a wait until midnight?) when she restocks inventory and caps.
11. I guess it's possible this extra delay corresponds to a trip to Bunker Hill but I doubt it
12. I'm inclined to believe that her presence in Bunker Hill is a random encounter triggered by the player's presence there, and not part of any real schedule.

Spikezarkspike (talk) 19:14, September 9, 2020 (UTC)

Thoughts? Spikezarkspike (talk) 14:16, September 7, 2020 (UTC)

Edit: on closer observation the pattern is something like this:

• Travel to the next location. This takes about 3.5-4 game hours depending on interruptions
• Remain there 8 game hours
  • Delay leaving if the player is asleep (or en route) so they get a chance to interact with her
• Travel to the other location (there are only two regular locations, the billboard is a one-off).
• Repeat forever

Note that this creates a 3 day pattern but still Carla visits both sites every day, just at different times during the 3 day pattern.

I did not see her disappearing one day in seven but I might have missed it. However I think it's possible her appearance in Bunker Hill (when the player is there) could be randomised rather than scheduled. Spikezarkspike (talk) 05:15, September 8, 2020 (UTC)

Conclusion

Actually it's very simple.

If the player does nothing she shuttles between Drumlin Diner and Sanctuary Hills at 12 hour intervals, taking about 3.5 hrs to do the trip. The timing of the trips is keyed off the time when the player first meets her and triggers her (or completes the Sanctuary quest presumably). She will wait for the player to arrive or wake up, delaying her departure, similar to a Provisioner.

However if at any point the player arrives at Bunker Hill on a Thursday, she will be there, in the travelling merchant counter. Her being in Bunker Hill is not programmed scheduled movement, it's a conditions response to the player going to Bunker Hill.

This is easy to verify. Start with Carla in Sanctuary on a Wednesday night / Thursday morning. Save the game. Let her leave. If you go to Drumlin Diner she will be at Drumlin Diner (you may meet her on the road). If you go to Bunker Hill she will be at Bunker Hill. Restore the save and do the opposite. Carla will be in the other place. Her location is not an independent schedule. It is dependent on player character actions.

I will amend the main article shortly unless anyone has any objections. Spikezarkspike (talk) 05:11, September 11, 2020 (UTC)

Detailed route

Sanctuary Hills

1. Stops between Sole Survivor house and workshop house
2. Heads south on the street towards the south bridge
3. Crosses the bridge (may walk through the river and over the rocks toward the water tower if obstructed).
4. Walks past Red Rocket Truck Stop
5. Heads to the crossroads with the dead Brahmin and bloodbugs.
6. Turns left = east at this crossroads, skirting Concord to its north
7. Turns right = south onto the street with the Workhouse (on the left)
8. At the fork turns right = west toward the Plutonium Well (and Deathclaw drain cover). Passing through the northern end of Gristle's raiders.
9. Turns left = east and walks right down Main St towards the Museum of Freedom like it's High Noon!
10. Turns right = south past the church and out of town
11. Continues straight south on this road
12. Passes through the billboard crossroads heading southeast towards Drumlin Diner
13. Passes Drumlin Diner then turns left = east onto the small service road next to the Diner
14. Walks up to the south wall of the Diner
15. Stops (until the next 8am or 8pm?)

Return trip leaves by the north service road but otherwise is the reverse of the above as far as the Concord Plutonium Well, then

• At the Well fork turn left = southwest (road to Red Rocket)

Once back at the dead Brahmin crossroads the route is again just the reverse of before.

In many cases Carla will teleport to her next destination ahead of her Brahmin, and vice versa. Spikezarkspike (talk) 00:11, September 8, 2020 (UTC)